The Girl With No Name
by munchkinjenny05
Summary: AU short and simple Oneshot- Katie Fitch meets a stranger while out jogging for the first time...


**Just a short oneshot to pass the time. I wanted to take a break from my ongoing fics and this happened. The product of procrastination. It's nothing life-changing, just a bit of fun, but I like how it turned out anyway.**

There is an old saying that goes something like "do something in haste, repent at leisure." I can't remember how the phrase goes exactly but as I tied my shoes that morning I could certainly relate to the gist of it. Telling Emily drunkenly one evening that I was going to take up jogging seemed harmless enough. It was just another of my self-improvement ideas that seemed so vital in the heat of the moment, but were soon abandoned, like the time that I said I'd have alcohol free days at least twice a week or that I would become a vegetarian after watching some documentary about cute baby piglets. In the cosy warmth of her flat the idea of getting some fresh air and exercise had seemed appealing.

"Just you wait, give me three months and I'll be running the half-marathon." I'd boasted after one too many glasses of Pinot Grigio. My smugness only slightly marred by the slurring of my words.

"She'll hold you to that in the morning." Naomi had sniggered. She was right. Emily gave me a wake-up call at 6am. My head was throbbing and it was only my pride that forced me out from under the duvet. _What's the worst that can happen?_ I thought. I quickly discovered that you need more than willpower at that time of the morning when your hang-over is showing no signs of letting up and the drizzle is making your hair resemble a frizzy halo. By then I was far from home. I was at Clifton Down to be exact, not far from the suspension bridge. It's not a world away, but I might as well have been in another county the way my body was protesting. It seemed that my affinity towards my body's wellbeing was as attuned as my ability to predict the weather. It had begun to rain harder and I cursed both my big fat mouth, and my sister's ability to remember every word that comes out of it no matter how much wine she consumes, with equal fervour.

I actually began to run purely as a means of getting home and away from the downpour. I regretted it at once. My body saw the error of my ways before my brain had a chance to catch on. It protested by sending a sharp pain shooting down my left side. I placed my fingers under my ribcage, but the pain didn't ease. I scowled. _Fucking fantastic. _I was getting soaked to the skin and I was powerless to prevent it. In short, my first foray into exercise was an utter disaster. I panted, hobbling along as best I could.

"Just breathe." The voice startled me as I hadn't heard anyone approach. I looked over, surprised that my view wasn't obscured by a large umbrella. Obviously I wasn't the only one unprepared for Bristol's finest that morning. What did strike me was that this girl wasn't wearing a coat or jacket of any kind, her arms were bare. She must have been freezing, her skin was rising into goose flesh, but she didn't show a single sign of discomfort. Her face was neutral, almost blank and it was strange to me being as expressive as I was that she could have such a level of control over her features. I stared at her unsure how to interpret what she had said. She looked like would blow away in a strong wind so I highly doubted that she was some kind of fitness fanatic. "Your stitch, if you take deep breaths it should go away." She elaborated. "Maybe bend over a little, that couldn't hurt either."

I looked at her again, trying to work out whether she was mocking me. Her smile was difficult to read. In the end, I decided that it was worth taking her advice if it meant I could get home comfortably so I did as she instructed. Remarkably, it worked. I grinned. "Thanks. I'm kind of new at this, in case you hadn't guessed." I extended my hand. "I'm Katie, Katie Fitch."

She took my hand and shook it. "Well, Katie, Katie Fitch, next time you come out for a jog you should try sticking to a light breakfast, maybe just some fruit." I smiled and waited for her to reveal her name, but she didn't. There was a slightly awkward pause.

"Ummm, thanks. I will, not that I can see myself doing this again in a hurry." She appraised my form as if judging whether I needed a boost to my physique. I had to fight the urge to blush. This little escapade had highlighted just how unfit I had become. I'd let myself indulge in far too much wallowing after I dumped the latest in a long line of losers recently. The single life and all its excesses had done me no good whatsoever.

She didn't seem to agree. The girl's eyes trailed languidly back to my face and she smiled. I had passed her fitness test at least. I didn't know whether or not to be flattered. She was a stranger after all, how reliable was that? Maybe she was just being nice. She took out a battered pack of cigarettes and shook one loose. I watched her cup her hands as she fought to light it, battling against the elements that eagerly sought to extinguish the flame. The girl took a drag and offered the packet to me. I knew I shouldn't but I was having a shitty morning. _Fuck it. _ I accepted a cigarette and she lit it for me with a cheap plastic Zippo, which she then flung on the ground.

"Thanks." I muttered, smiling as I breathed in the smoke. I could feel her eyes on me again, watching and I glanced across to her. She was smirking. "What?" I asked, she was staring at me like I had something on my face. I played with a strand of hair nervously; the force of the girl's focus was slightly intimidating.

She chuckled softly. "It's just that you didn't inhale properly. Breathe in, now breathe in again so it goes there." She reached over and touched me near my collarbone to emphasis just how terribly she believed I was doing at indulging this bad habit. I sighed. I had definitely dropped in her estimations.

"So, let me get this straight, not only am I terrible at jogging, but what's more I'm not badass enough to smoke properly. That's just great. Way to shatter all my allusions little miss no name." The girl just grinned. We sucked on the cigarettes for a while in companionable silence. Finally, I was just so curious that I felt the need to break the silence first. "So, do you come here a lot, to the park I mean?"

She nodded. "Yeah I do. This place is kind of special to me. A lot of firsts happened here. Let's see, there was the first time I lost at hide and seek and my first kiss, the first time I got drunk…There are a lot of memories."

I smiled. "I guess it must be good to come back, to have somewhere to reminisce, you know."

She shrugged. "It's nice."

"That sounded convincing." I remarked with a roll of my eyes.

"It's just, nothing ever stays the same. Everything is always changing."

"Isn't that the point?" She didn't answer and I supposed that it wasn't my place to pry. We were merely strangers sharing a cigarette and that was all. She didn't owe me any kind of explanation.

"Anyway, I should go." She replied stubbing the remains of her cigarette out against her boot heel. With that, she disappeared as silently as she arrived. In seconds there was no trace of her as she vanished into the gloom. It was so abrupt that it led me to wonder if I had imagined the entire encounter with the mysterious girl. I looked down and saw that I couldn't have. In any case though, the dropped lighter and stub were the only evidence that she existed. Without being able to acknowledge them, there was the possibility that I could almost have been talking to myself all that time.

"See you around!" I called. I had no idea if she even heard me. I didn't imagine for one second that I would see her again, especially since we had lived in the same place for god knows how long and apparently shared an affinity for this park and yet had never run into each other before. Bristol wasn't that big and I definitely would have remembered this girl, she was the type that stood out. You wouldn't fail to notice her even in a crowd, she was edgy, quirky.

Needless to say, when I did run into the nameless girl for a second time, I was pleasantly surprised. It was weeks later and I was scared that she wouldn't remember me. I was about to duck into a coffee shop and grab a quick, on the go, Latte before class when I saw her hanging around outside. She was leaning against a pillar, smoking, of course, and she looked like the archetypal rock chick. The girl just effortlessly oozed cool as she loitered there in a distressed leather jacket and a ridiculously short dress that may or may not have begun life as a T-shirt. I sidled up to her as quietly as I could but she heard me a mile off, tilting her chin up as she tried to place my face.

"Can I hijack another smoke if I promise to inhale properly this time?" I asked cheekily with a grin. I could tell, then in that instance, that she remembered me perfectly well. She was just teasing me. She laughed and obligingly lit me up. The same thing happened with the lighter and I was tempted to ask her how many she had. _How many did she go through from day to day? _ My mind boggled. "Do you want to get a coffee?" I asked when the novelty of her silence began to wear thin on me.

She thought for a moment, and retorted with what I'd already gathered was her trademark smirk, on her face. "Sure, why not?" We extinguished our cigarettes barely touched and she followed me towards the entrance.

I stopped. The movement was sudden and I was highly shocked that she didn't walk into the back of me. I turned and fixed my gaze on her sparkling blue eyes. They were alight with amusement. "One thing first, you have to tell me your name."


End file.
